The intelligent ones do not get lost in the pleasure that comes out of the contact, of the Gunas and its objects. They are not carried away by the pleasure of the senses and its objects. They know that this pleasure is momentary. It has a beginning and an end.

Knowing this, they abide in the Self which is the source of joy. Unless you get this maturity, you cannot move into your center. It needs some maturity from the world. Some amount of saturation. Some amount of getting beaten up by situations in life, so that pushes you to the center. If you are too ambitious all the time, thinking about this and that, the mind is hovering around the world and it can never get into the center.

That is why, either a person who is saturated can go so very deep in meditation or a person who has suffered in this life can go into meditation. They know what is sorrow and can drop things or they know what was sorrow and can take things like that.

In Buddha’s time, they say 10,000 people could sit and meditate and 10,000 people got enlightened because people are saturated from sensory pleasures and they know that this is not leading us anywhere.

What is not available to you, you think this joy may be available in that. A rich man knows that riches do not give him joy or peace. But for a poor man, he thinks that from riches he will gain joy and peace. So he goes on that trip. Someone who is famous knows that just becoming famous does not give him anything. Someone who wants to be famous goes on that trip.